Computer networks typically have gateways for receiving events or for polling network elements. These gateways have access to a central management server to relay requests (and messages) to and from the gateway. The gateway becomes aware of such requests through user polling or through other means, such as traps. The central management server may, for example, include a rule engine which would include a user agent process for learning (remembering) the different users and their alerts. An alert could be, for example, notification of a down switch, notification of a down transmission line, or any other type of notification.
Typically, when a system is running and a client (user) logs in and starts a client session, the client would go to the user agent to request a list of all the alerts that are currently in the system pertaining to the user, or pertaining to other selected criteria. The user agent does not have a list of any of the alerts since the agent does not have the context of the user. The agent then goes to the central management server to request a list of all the alerts that have been posted. The requested information then flows from the central server and the user agent then splits out the alerts by authorization, i.e., the alerts that are not authorized for that user must be removed and the proper alerts forwarded to the user.
Thus, one user may be authorized for receiving information for a particular network element. The alerts can be organized in levels and different users can be authorized for different alert levels.
When a second user logs on, that user can also ask for a list of all alerts. The user agent would go back to the rule engine (central server) again and repeat the process. Note that even if the user agent had saved the prior list, it would not know what changes had occurred to the alerts in the interim, so the list would not be a fresh list.
The system works such that when an alert is initially generated from the rule engine, it is received by the user agent which determines which user is authorized for that alert. The agent then sends out the proper alert to the individual user. When an alert is updated or cleared, it is sent out to all users. If the user had received the original alert, the update clears it, or modifies that alert. If the original alert had not been received by this user, then the software at the user's location must know that since it does not have anything to update, it must not have received the original alert and thus the update is not meant for that user. A particular user then may get a lot of notifications that do not apply to that user. This occurs because the user agent can not keep track of original alerts sent and thus must send all updates for all users.
Accordingly, a problem exists in that alert updates (or alert clear signals) are sent to devices or to remote users who never received the original alerts, thereby creating unnecessary traffic on the communication lines.
A further problem is that there is a time delay in accessing the rule engine of the central management server, because each alert is queued to be sent out to the user agent and thus it is difficult to know when a particular alert has gone to a particular user.
A still further problem exists in that the central server, and/or the rule engine, must be accessed each time a user enters the system so that the user can obtain its proper alerts.